Transmissive reconfigurable metasurface enabling independent control of active and passive modules through weak coupling

Abstract

Metasurfaces have demonstrated rich electromagnetic control capabilities and degrees of freedom in past years. As is well known, for passive metasurfaces, their functionalities cannot be further expanded accordingly once prototypes are established. Therefore, reconfigurable metasurfaces, utilizing active devices to replace geometric changes in passive structures, have received widespread attention, especially with the development of wireless communication recently. In reconfigurable metasurfaces, artificial meta-atoms are composed of active devices and passive structures combined together. However, these two modules are usually utilized as a whole due to the tight coupling of the active devices and the passive structures, which results in passive structures not receiving sufficient attention and being utilized as independent degrees of freedom. In this article, we propose the concept of weakly coupled reconfigurable metasurfaces in transmissive systems, enabling independent control of active and passive modules through weak coupling. As the proof of concept, a simple weakly coupled system is proposed, which can realize the transmission wavefront engineering through the geometric changes of meta-structures in passive mode, while achieving switching between transmission and reflection states in active mode, respectively. Our exploration lies in making use of the physical structure, which is easily neglected in traditional reconfigurable metasurface design, emphasizing the collaborative work of active and passive modules, exploring more available variables within the same aperture, and providing a potential solution for balancing functionality and resource consumption in practical applications.